West Point Admission as Enlisted?

1. How difficult is it to obtain your commander's nomination? Who generally is your direct commander at your post?

It is not easy as they only select someone who they feel is a model soldier and someone who would be able to get through West Point. In addition, if they recommend you, they loose a soldier so if you are assigned to a unit that is deploying you might not get the recommendation. Your company commander would be the person who recommends you. Typically it is a captain.

2. My birthday is before July 1, so does that mean I only have this year for a shot at West Point? Since I cannot be 23 before July 1 of the year of admission.

Yes. However, if you do not get West Point, you could apply for green to gold which is an rotc program. You should research this as you are more likely to get this.

3. What advantages do West Point officers have over OCS officers?

ROTC produces more officers than West Point. Colin Powell was ROTC as was Tommy Franks and many others. Graduating from West Point has some networking advantages and prestige. There is nothing wrong with getting an OCS commission either.

4. What advice would you give someone in my circumstances? Tips, words of caution, etc. would be helpful. Anything is welcome.

Do not solely enlist in hopes of trying to get into West Point. It is very very difficult to get in this way. Enlist because you want to serve your country first and if you get into West Point be very happy about it. Do not go basic training and open your mouth about west point in the beginning. The drill sgts will dog you to no end. Do your best and see how things work out for you. Remember that if you do not get WP or even the green to gold program, you still get full gi bill benefits that will cover full tuition at state universities and you will get basic allowance for housing. This is a big benefit and you could do rotc while in college (after your enlistment) and possibly go back in as an officer.

It can be done. I don't know how hard it is, but I know one of the guys in my company at the Defense Language Institute got himself nominated. You probably need a stellar PT score, marksmanship score, and good scores in your AIT courses. You need to talk to your chain of command as soon as you get to AIT. They may tell you that you should go to your first duty station and ask your commander there for a nomination.

The main advantage to West Point is a free education. It's also considered very prestigious, and connections made there can really help you if you want to make the Army a long term career. Even people who only do the minimum five years after graduating often network and help each other out in the civilian world.

Give it a shot. If you don't make it, you could try for Green to Gold. That would let you leave Active Duty to finish your degree before coming back as an officer.

honestly.. you already have 2 years worth of college under your belt.. forget West Point and go ROTC. if you got accepted to WP you'd still have to do all 4 years.

1. How difficult is it to obtain your commander's nomination? Who generally is your direct commander at your post?

A: One major difficulty is that you are not even in the Army yet and the Commander's endorsement has to reach West Point by the second Monday in January. No Commander is going to have the time to evaluate you to give his endorsement. See page 16 of the 2009-2010 West Point Catalog:

http://admissions.usma.edu/moreinfo/wp_catalog.pdf

2.My birthday is before July 1, so does that mean I only have this year for a shot at West Point? Since I cannot be 23 before July 1 of the year of admission.

A: Yes, and you are already beyond the age to be considered for Usmaps.

3. What advantages do West Point officers have over OCS officers?

A: Not really sure why it is West Point versus OCS since most Army Officers commission through Rotc and you do not have a degree which is required for OCS. For West Point commissioned officers, it is like an old boy's club. Since 20% of Army officers have a common alma mater and experience they have each others back so to speak in terms of choice assignments, promotions, rifs etc There is no other single commissioning source of Army Officers where a strong shared common bond is present. For instance, the chance of a fellow Cal Rotc Alum being on a promotion board is infinitesimal compared to a fellow West Pointer.

4. What advice would you give someone in my circumstances? Tips, words of caution, etc. would be helpful. Anything is welcome.

A: If you are interested in commissioning as an Army officer whether through West point, Rotc or Ocs, enlisting is not the way to go about it. Very few soldiers are appointed directly to West Point. Most first spend a year at the Prep School and even then they only make up a maximum of 20% of the Usmaps class. Most of the students at the Prep School are recruited high school athletes and high school students recruited for other Academy goals who are enlisted in the Army Reserves and placed on active duty status at the time of enrolling in the Prep School. The 85 Active duty slots + 85 Reserve slots touted as reserved for enlisted soldiers are in reality the maximum number of appointments based on Secretary of the Army nominations allowed for soldiers but West Point has no intention of using all or even a majority of these appointments for enlisted soldiers because they are needed for the above mentioned recruiting categories-athletes and other high school recruits. West Point has not published the exact number of enlisted soldiers in their Class of 2013 Profile...

http://admissions.usma.edu/moreinfo/Profile2013.pd...

.... but refers to twenty five combat veterans which we can guess are the enlisted soldiers. It is much the same at the Air Force Academy and Annapolis. Annapolis in the Class of 2013 Portrait, does indicate the number of Midshipmen who came from the enlisted ranks either directly or after a NAPS year. Total: 32 Sailors and 11 Marines. Fifteen of the 32 Sailors entered directly from the Navy seven of the fifteen came out of the Nuclear Power School. 17 of the Sailors spent a year at Naps. 4 Marines entered directly from the enlisted ranks and 7 Marines spent a Naps year. Of the 242 Mids who entered after a Naps year, exactly 10%, 17 Sailors and 7 Marines came out of the enlisted ranks.

http://www.usna.edu/admissions/documents/Class%20P...

If there were twenty five combat veterans at West Point and this includes all or most of the soldiers from the enlisted ranks, it is even a lower percentage than at Annapolis.

Usmaps is not a possibility since you are over the age and also already more qualified scholastically than probably 99% of the candidates for the West Point Class of 2015 if you have typical Sat scores of a student accepted as a Freshman to Berkeley Engineering and two years of College Level Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, English etc that constitute the first two years of any Berkeley Engineering degree. My advice if you left in good standing is to withdraw from the DEP...

http://www.girightshotline.org/discharges/dep/fact...

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/dep.htm

...apply for readmission to Berkeley which is non competitive and also apply for an Rotc Scholarship.

For Readmission to COE, see page 21:

http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergrad...

Unresolvable issues regarding readmission:

http://students.berkeley.edu/Ombuds/

Good description of Rotc:

http://army.berkeley.edu/faq.shtml

If you have been working the past year and if you work this next year, you may be able to qualify for independent status for financial aid purposes. An Rotc scholarship will pay full tuition whether you were in state or out of state. You can still apply for West Point right now as a civilian. Another possibility if you are still near Berkeley is to go to a community college until readmitted and to enroll in Rotc at Berkeley this Fall. This will help you to gain an Rotc scholarship. The units earned should not affect your Berkeley degree since they are all lower division and will not transfer if you already have two years of undergrad. My understanding is that the Army Rotc Scholarships are not hard to get at Berkeley. Also, an Rotc Commander can nominate Cadets to West Point. So this is another source of a nomination. Besides the Army, there is of course Afrotc and Nrotc at Berkeley...

http://military.berkeley.edu/

... and the Navy's CEC, Nupoc and BDCP are also possibilities.

http://www.waynesdyno.net/CivEng.html

http://www.waynesdyno.net/Nuke.html

http://www.waynesdyno.net/BDCP.html

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/noru/orojt3/generaloffice...

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/sanfrancisco/opo/general-...

[Two websites directly above are currently off line. Will probably be back by the morning.]

Good Luck!